Middle Tennessee State University Deploys Canon Gear for New HD Production Truck

10/1/2012

MURFREESBORO, TENN. –At Middle Tennessee State University’s department of electronic media communications, students learn to create broadcast-quality programming with a hands-on approach. Included among the department’s complement of imaging technologies are Canon’s HD portable ENG and EFP lenses and professional file-based HD camcorders.

MTSU recently launched a 40 ft. $1.7 million mobile HD production vehicle, which is used by the student-run EMC Productions to cover sports and events for local broadcast and cable stations and a national cable network. Separately, class shoots provide training for academic credit.

Central to this production work are MTSU’s HD portable lenses, as well as its selection of small high-performance integrated file-based HD camcorders. MTSU chose 2/3-inch portable lenses that include two Canon HJ18ex28B portable HD super-telephoto EFP lenses (with 2x extenders), five Canon KJ17ex7.7B portable HD ENG lenses, one Canon KJ10ex4.5B portable HD wide-angle ENG lens, and two Canon XF305 professional file-based HD camcorders.

Canon’s HJ18ex28B portable HD super-telephoto lens is designed for video capture over a long range of focal lengths using portable HD EFP cameras with 2/3-inch imagers. The HJ18ex28B delivers a focal-length range of 28 to 500mm (up to 1000mm with its built-in 2X extender), and has an optical speed of f/2.8 up to a focal length of 286mm. Canon says the HJ18ex28B offers the longest focal length of any lens in its class, but weighs less than 6 lbs. and requires no mechanical support system to mount to an HD camera.

“We also have the Canon enhanced digital servo zoom controllers on our two HJ18ex28B lenses, and we love the focus on them,” Parrish added.

MTSU’s Canon KJ10ex4.5B portable wide-angle HD EFP lens provides a range of focal lengths and a wide field of view.

All of MTSU’s portable ENG/EFP lenses also feature Canon Digital Drive units built into their handgrips. The technology provides microprocessor-driven servo control of iris, zoom and focus, along with position memory. Users can pre-program iris settings, repeatable “padded” zoom start/stop positions, steady and slow zoom creeps and focus settings with no mechanical play or gear backlash.

MTSU also has two Canon XF305 professional HD camcorders. The XF305 is equipped with a Genuine Canon 18x HD L-series zoom lens with Instant AF and a Full Manual Focus mode with mechanical “hard” end stops, clearly engraved distance markers, and a 35mm equivalent zoom range of from 29.3mm to 527.4mm. The XF305 records HD video directly to Compact Flash cards and employs Canon’s advanced MPEG-2 4:2:2 50Mbps XF codec for image quality and workflow compatibility. This camcorder’s features also include a four-inch, 1.23-megapixel LCD monitor, and HD-SDI output, a genlock input, and SMPTE time code terminals for multi-camera productions.

MTSU’s Canon XF305 professional HD camcorders are also used ENG-style by students to shoot packages, without risking a more expensive ENG camera.